Gas-engine inlet-valve.



No. 863,922. n PATENTE) AG. 2o, 1907. 1 SUM & F. E. NORTON.

GAS ENGINE INLET VALVE.

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GAS ENGINE INLET VALVE.

APPLICATION FILED 111211.11. 190s.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

No. 863,922 PATENTBD AUG. 2o, 1907. o. HOUSUMN P. E. NORTON.

GAS ENGINE INLET VALVE.

APPLICATION FILED APE. 11. 1906.

INVENTORS wrrNEsss PATENTED AUG. 20, 190'?. C. HUUSUM & F. E. NORTON.

- GAS ENGINE INLET VALVE.

APPLIUATION FILED APR. 1l 1906.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

INVENTORS CV 'H-mww WITNESSES "PATENT anni'.

GAS-ENGINE vINLE'.U-VALVE.

' nofeeaoea Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Enig. 2.0, 190'?.

Application filed April 11,1906. Serial No. 311,037.

To'all whom it may concern:

Be it known that We, CuENowTH HoUsUM and Fnsn E..N'ORTON, both of Youngstown, Mahoning county, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Gas-Engine Inlet- Valve, Oiwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference` being had to the accompanying vdrawingsiorming part oi this specification, in Which- K Figure 1 is a sectional lView showing our improved valve applied to one form of gas engine; Fig. 2 is a section on theline ,II-II ,of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a view showingl means for operating the gas admission valve. Fig. 4 is a side view, partly in section. showing one form of governor and its connections for operating one Oi the valve members; and Fig. 5 is a sectionion line V- V` of Fig. 4. Figs. 6 and are respectively plan and side views. largely diagrammatic` showing the application of our invention to a four-cycle, double-acting,

tandem gas engine.

Ourvinvention is applicable to gas engines oi any form in which itis desirable to introduce the gas and air in predetermined proportions; and it consists in the ction and arrangement oi valves and valveV mechanism all substantially as hereinafter described and pointed out in the appended claims.

i ver mechanism 4, 5 and 6 from an ,eccentric 7 on a shaft S, operated from the engine shaft by the usual half-l spced gearing. v

9' and 10 designato the sparking points, the point 9 being carried by a relatively fixed spindle 11, while the point 10 is carried by a longitudinally movable spindle v12, which is actuated by a hammer device 13, Operated .by a level' movement 14 connected to a lever of the inlet valve -operating mechanism presently to be described. This igniting device orms` however, no part oi our present invention, `blutris ully described and claimed inthe co-pending application of Fred E. Norton, Serial No. 311,034, one of the applicants herein.

15 designates the inlet valve. which controls the admission port 16. -The valve 15 is oi the mush-room form, and is secured to a stem 17 having a guide at 18, and whose free end is engaged by a lever 19 of a compound 'lcvenoperating movement 19, 20,121, 22 and 23 operiore referred to. l

" The' valve-operating'mechanism shown and thus briefly described forms the subject-matter of a second lapplication oi the` said Fred` E. Norton, Serial No.

311.032 y.illustratin'gmeans for-the operation of the'inlet valve. 5 "llle'val'v'estem'lis disconnected from thevlevcr 19; so that the valve an d spindle are separate from all other parts and the valve is free to adjust itseli to its seat against the peripheral YWall of the admission port 16 unai-ed by au arm 24 of the strap 25 of the `eccentric 7 be- 'a-nd is shown h -rev'vith for the purpose only oiv der all conditions. The valve is seated by means :o i

spring 26 which has a bearing at one end against engine. frame at 2T, and at its other cnd agai movable cap 2S which secured to the spindle The cap 28 is provided with a hollow cylindrical portion 28, in which is seated a piston 29 secured to sleeve 30. Seated between the piston 29 and a boss 31 of the frame is a second spring 32. Secured to the sleeve 31 is a valve body v33, which is oi cylindrical forni, and which has the circumferential ports u and b. This valve 33 has the three seats 34, 35 and 3G..

37 is the gas inlet and 38 the air inlet -port. Seated p around the sleeve 30 behind the valve 33 is a, compound valve for controlling the admission Oi in the port .'17 to the valve 33 and its chamber. This compound valve consists of four disks 39, 40, 41 and 42 placed adjacent to each other, and formed each with a series o1' segmental Openings c. rThe disks 40 and -12 are stationary. Whilethc disks 39 and 41 are capable of a rotary movement in Order to vary the effective area of the openings through the series of disks. Various means .may be providedjor Operating these movable disks. Thus. the disk 41 maybe operated by hand, While the disk 39 can be operated by any suilable connection with 1hr'- en- Fig. 1 to move said disk by means of a suitable crank or eccentric 43having a fixed throw, but a variable time of motion relatively to the engine crank. This relative change in time may be accomplished in an. oi' the ways usual for steam aud other engines, and is not claimed` as part of our invention.

In the drawing, 1 have shown the disk 41 as connected by gear 44 with a longitudinally movable rod 45 which may be Operated by hand, 0r. by any other suitable means', while the disk 39 is connected by a link 46 with a rod 47 which is connected through the levers 43 Aand rod 43 'to the crank or eccentric 4S, as

shovvn in Fig. 1, and which is actuated by a connection 43n to a governor 431.

Figs. 4 and 5 illustrate in detail one arrangement by which the'governor is caused to act in the manner described. This governor is the usual ily-ball governor, driven from the engine shaft through the shaft 50 and bevel-gearing 51. i

52, 53, 54 and 55 designate the gear wheels o an epicycloidal gear train, the gear wheel 54 being keyed to the shaft 50, and the wheel 55 to a shaft 5G. The

-ivheels 52. and.53 are intermediate gears, held in mesh by the links 57, 58, and 59, and the wheci't'l being The ratio of the gears 52, 53, 54 and 55 is such Vthat the crank 43 is driven at the, same number Oi revolutions as the engine shaft. As the governor moves up 'v on center and the `pressure in the,

In other words, the action of the governor is to change the phase relation of the crank 43 with respect to the main engine crank. v

In setting the valve plates, with thel engine crank governor in its down position, the

valve plate 39 will be on the point of opening, 4or cutting-on. -The down position of the governor, or

v the lowest extreme of its travel, is, of course, the full- .loadv position.

With the engine running' at half load and the governor in its mid position, the crank 10 has been retarded by'about ninety degrees of its travel and consequently the governor valve is not opened until about mid-stroke of theengine piston. The same result may obviously b e obtained hy using a shaft governor instead of a fly-ball governor.

The shaft 50 is shown as driven by a sprocket wheel 50"I and chain 50", (sce Fig: 1), from a shaft 65 driven vin any suitable manner from the main engine shait 66.

By driving the gas governor valve at the same speed as the main engine shaft, Awe avoid a complication of shaits andndriving mechanisms. This will be understood by considering a four-cycle double-acting tandem gas engine, with one cylinder behind the other. Designate the end of the cylinder next the, bed-plate as A, the other end as li, the orward end of the second cylinder as C, and its other end as D, the inlet valve bonnets are all the same` and the rod 47 runs through all four bonnets. The governor valve plates of A and C will open clockwise., while by connecting the links 46 to opposite sides of the valve platesthe other valves may he made to open countertlockwise. The rod 47 is reciprocate-d by the crank 43, so -that the valves o A and C open on the forward stroke and li and D on the return stroke. 'lhe main valve 15,'for A is the only main valve, however, which opens on the forward stroke, so that the opening of the governor valve for C is an idle movement, no gas being admitted, From this, the advantage of driving the gas valve at the same speed as the engine shalt will be clear, since otherwise a complication o mechanism would be required. In order to secure free movement of these disks, they may he separated from the adjacent fixed disks by means oi small washers 48, as shown in Fig. 2. Thel gas is admitted through this compound valve, thence through the ports 34 and a into the interior of the valve 33, and thence into the cylipdcr hy way of the ports l1 and lli. The air lroin the port Clil'also passes into the valve 33 hy way ol the ports a, and thence to thtI cylinder, mixed with the gas, hy way ol' the ports I and ll, the'interior ol the valvtl 32's loi-ming a mixing chamber.

Fig. l of the drawing shows the position of the parts when the engine crank is on the dead point and is just about to stort the piston l'orward on the inlet stroke., 'lhe valvrI l5 is slightly open, and'the air in the cylinder 23" lun-k ol' tlul piston 29 is beginning to he compressed, thereby tending to open the valve 33. As soon us lhfengine piston moves forward, the

cylinder 2 l'ulls, and the valves l5 and itil :novo lol'wau'd, '.ulluitlingr air through the port 38. 'lhe vulve disk lill, which is controlled hy the governor, will not at this time have opened unless the engine is undelt, maximum load, and consequently no gas will be `IJ'dmitted untilgthe crank is moved through an angle determined by .the governor. At some point in the forward stroke of the engine piston,

-the valve 39 will open, and for the remainder of the will be admitted in a conlv suction stroke -air and gas stant proportion, as determined by the effective areas of the ports 34 and 35, or-hy the throttling through y the fixed disks 40 and 42 by the movement of the disk 4l. The movement of the dis'k'39 may lhe controlled in such a manner-that it will yadmit gas duringA the entire stroke, when the governor .is in its position corresponding to the greatest load, or rit may admit gas during the latter portion only of the suction stroke, when the governor is rat its other extreme'of' motion. In the latter case, onlyv enough gas willl be admittedto overcome the friction o the engine.

I I 1n orde'to provide for the economical and' reliable operation ofthe engine', it is desirable that the valve disk '39 should' be full-open at the end of the suction stroke, when working at part-load, so as'to insure. a good mixture of gas and air during the latter part oi' the -iulet stroke, It is also desirable that the disk 39 shall move very quickly to its Wide open position, so as' to ,secure the so-called stratificationeffect, as

much as possible, air only` beingadmitted during the first part of the suction stroke, while a proper mixture o gas and air s'admitted during the remainv der of that stroke. For thisreason, it is preferable to actuate-this disk from an eccentric or crank, such as 43 which rotates at the same'specd as the engine. In the arrangement Ashown in Figs. 1l and 3, wherein both the inlet valve 15 and exhaust valve 3 derive their' motion from the shaft' 8, which is a half-speed shalt in a tour-cycle type engiiw, these valves are open every alternate stroke only, while thevalve disk 3l) isopen at each stroke. In this manner, a quick motion ol the' cut-ofi valvc is secured without unnecessary complication, and all the valves in the tandemengine may be driven from asingle `crank or eccentric' which may have its strokepvaricd by the governor, either inextent, orA in phase relation to the engine crank. i

The gas engine inlet'valve, as herein described, is designed to work on the-principle of the stratification of gases. To illustrate, suppose the Iengine is running on half load and the corresponding position of the governor 'is in mid-travel.. By our arrangement of inlet valve,l the main valve l5 will commence to open just before the beginning of the suction stroke and the tripleseated puppet valve will move with it, while the governor valve 39 remainsclosed. Asthe piston travels forward, air will be sucked into the cylinder through the air passage 38' and tho port 35, the area of the port 35 determining the amount of air entering the cylinder. By the time th e piston has reached about mid-stroke, the

` crank 43 will have been turned through a' suicent angle to cause the governor valve 39 to commence to open.

The areathroughv the governor valve is in excess of the amorin't reqdired' to furnish Vproper proportion of gas' This is 

